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Chastity Turner, 9-year-old Girl Shot Dead in Drive By; Chicago

by tvtayber | June 25, 2009 at 11:34 am

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Chastity Turner, a 9-year-old girl, was shot in the back of the neck in a drive by shooting in Chicago Wednesday, June 24th 2009. Police say the shooting was likely gang related and have found a vehicle matching the description of the suspect's van. Two suspects are in custody and Police have recovered a rifle they believe may have been the murder weapon.

Chastity was shot in the back or neck when someone opened fire from a van in the 7400 block of South Stewart Avenue on the South Side. She later died at the University of Chicago's Comer Children's Hospital. Three other people, including her father, were wounded in the shooting.

Chastity's father, Andre Turner, 31, and two other men -- ages 17 to early 30s -- also were shot. The three all had non-life-threatening wounds.

Chastity was visitng her grandmother at the time of the shooting, washing her dog on the front porch. The neighborhood is notoriously dangerous. There have been two other shootings on the same block already this year and Police executed search warrants seeking weapons on the block over the last couple of weeks.

The victim's grandmother, Tanya Turner, says that shootings happen constantly in the neighborhood.

"She told me this morning, she said, 'grandma, I'm going home, it's not safe around here,'" said Chastity's grandmother Tanya Turner. "I said, 'baby, it's not safe no place now.'"